Christians are called to celebrate.  I will tell you, the people of St. Isidore really live into that calling!  All of the house churches gathered together yesterday to celebrate Word and Table.  After the Eucharist we had an old fashioned feed.  The weather outside was perfect, and it was so nice to see everyone together.  The volunteers who prepared the meal hit it out of the park.

​I love that this church is able to be so ingrained into the community, being the light.  I also love when we take the time to gather and remind ourselves where our light comes from.

We had a little break in the action, as the truck was undergoing a few cosmetic changes.  We redid the wrap on the back of the truck, and also a little bit on the serving side, in order to make things more readable.  The biggest change is in our sponsor side.  This is what the back of the truck used to look like.

Now that is a good looking truck!

Our February Laundry Love was the first time that the truck has made an appearance.  It was a beautiful day, and all of the volunteers were wonderful.

We were blessed to have a great menu of a four cheese mac and cheese, as well as street tacos with either a pineapple salsa or some of Robert's famous salsa verde.  We ended up serving over one hundred and fifty meals as well as giving out over 400 pounds of fresh produce and bread.  

​Next month is going to be great!

The Episcopal Diocese of Texas gathered together for three days down in Galveston, Texas.  We were honored to be able to bring the truck down to the Convention Center, and share the mission of The Abundant Harvest.  It was great to see old friends, and meet new friends.  

One of the most important things that we did while we were there was to invite people to be creative in how they went out into their own home communities.  It was inspiring to hear how God is working in all parts of Texas.

We really enjoyed being with the Youth Church of St. Isidore this week.  One of the things that is important to us is teaching people to cook tasty simple meals.  As a way of introducing the truck to the Church, so they could discern how best to engage the community, we had a cook night, where they could make 2nd dinners.  (they are teens after all, and usually hungry.)

The menu for the evening was cheese quesadillas and a mango jalapeño salsa.  They each tackled dicing a different fruit or vegetable.  Mangoes, jalepeños, red onion, red bell pepper, and lime juice were combined with a bit of salt and pepper.  Then everyone took turn at the flat top cooking their tortillas and cheese.  

We will go back in two weeks, when they meet again and discuss all the ways they will be able to be more involved in the community.  Thank you to Mr. Clark and Ms. Peggy who are the awesome youth ministers!

On Superbowl Sunday, February 5, we partnered with a great group of people with Samaritan's Feet, and Mt. Hebron Baptist Church in Houston.  At this event, 250 children had their feet washed, received a new pair of shoes, got to get their hair styled, and then had lunch.  

The volunteers prepped enchilada casserole the night before, and it turned out delicious.  We also served cheese quesadillas and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  The sides were apples or grapes.  We thought we were going to serve 250.  But, because there is always enough and some to share, we actually put out about 425 meals.  We also were able to give away groceries for another 100 meals.

It was a wonderful afternoon of gathering around the table!  Thank you to all of our volunteers who helped make the day so successful!

On Tuesday, we were able to go down to Texas Cart Builders and learn how to run everything on the truck.  We got a very thorough lesson in generators, electricity, amps, watts, propane, and electric cords.  It was so helpful, and Zack, who is the man behind the food truck scene in Houston was an excellent teacher.

We were also able to go through the truck and come up with a punch list of a few more things to truly customize our operation.  We know now where we want to hang the paper towel rack, where the spice rack will go, and where we will be placing the menu and giving basket.  The people we are working with have great customer service, and they want it all to be perfect also.  

We are doing a test run of the kitchen itself tomorrow.  We will be at the garage, cooking on all the new equipment.  We are honored that our first meal in the truck will be going to the hard working crew that built the truck.  On Friday, we hope to take full possession of the truck.  Saturday we will prep for our first public serving, which will be Sunday, at the Super Serve Event.  What a great Super Bowl weekend!  HTown will be well represented!

The following videos were taken yesterday at our class.